Kerry Embraces Former Rival, Citing 'Courage and Conviction'

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: July 6, 2004

PITTSBURGH, July 6 - Senator John Kerry named John Edwards as his running mate on Tuesday, turning to a youthful North Carolina senator whose nimble campaign skills, engaging personality and evident appeal across different regions of the country had made him the top choice of many Democratic leaders.

``I have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of America,'' Mr. Kerry told a roaring crowd at a morning rally at Market Square here, minutes after an announcement of his choice had been e-mailed to hundreds of thousands of supporters.

``A man who has shown courage and conviction as a champion for middle-class Americans and for those struggling to reach the middle class,'' Senator Kerry added, citing the themes that Mr. Edwards had made his own in the Democratic primaries. ``A man who has shown guts and determination and political skill in his own race for the presidency of the United States.''

In the 51-year-old Mr. Edwards, Senator Kerry, who is 60, chose a relative newcomer to American politics, and a man who was his longest-lasting major rival in the Democratic nominating contests.

After a surprisingly strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses - some Kerry aides say they believe Mr. Edwards would have won had the caucuses occurred two days later - Mr. Edwards held on until the first week of March as others once thought to have more star power, like Howard Dean and Gen. Wesley K. Clark, fell behind.

``I was humbled by his offer and thrilled to accept it,'' Mr. Edwards said in a statement before joining his wife and children to fly to Pittsburgh to spend the evening with the Kerry family at Teresa Heinz Kerry's estate near here.

The Kerry campaign orchestrated the selection for maximum exposure, managing to keep it a secret across the holiday weekend, making both a traditional rally announcement as well as one by e-mail and delaying the ticket's first joint appearance until Wednesday. The two men and their wives are to embark Wednesday on a four-day tour through the swing states of Ohio, Florida, West Virginia and New Mexico before ending the week with a rally in North Carolina on Saturday.

Democrats who hailed the selection on Tuesday said Mr. Edwards's buoyant personality and drawling, sunny speaking style would bring a needed jolt of energy to Mr. Kerry's ticket. They said he would provide a striking contrast to Vice President Dick Cheney, though Republicans countered that a debate between the two would be a face-off between sizzle and substance, particularly over the Iraq war, when Mr. Edwards's relative lack of foreign policy experience would be an issue.

Several Democrats also said that Mr. Edwards's selection would put to rest questions that Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, was writing off the South. Rather, they said, the addition of Mr. Edwards - and his support from blacks, among other mainstay Democratic constituencies - would put North Carolina into play and bolster Mr. Kerry's bid in other Southern states, improving his chances of outdoing the abysmal performance in the South of Al Gore, a native Tennessean, four years ago.

The choice of Mr. Edwards is also likely to have a powerful effect on the future of the party, giving a platform to a younger Democrat and setting up a potential leadership clash between Mr. Edwards, as Mr. Kerry's presumptive heir, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has ridden her husband's legacy to the Senate and is widely thought to have designs on the White House herself.

Mr. Edwards's background as a trial lawyer is certain to help Mr. Kerry and the Democratic Party raise money heading into the fall campaign, but Republicans and industry officials said it also would propel business executives, manufacturers and other proponents of curbs on civil litigation and jury awards to increase contributions to President Bush.

More immediately, the choice of Mr. Edwards forced aides to Mr. Kerry to try to reconcile his dismissal of Mr. Edwards as unready for the presidency when the two men were vying in the Democratic primaries.

``In the Senate four years - and that is the full extent of public life - no international experience, no military experience,'' Mr. Kerry said in Iowa in January. ``When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers.''

And in February, Mr. Kerry warned of Mr Edwards, ``This is not the time for on-the-job training in the White House on national security issues.''

Republicans immediately played up Mr. Kerry's past remarks. ``This is the person he now considers qualified to be president of the United States?'' said Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, as Republicans circulated a 23-page, 16,000-word dossier on Tuesday that depicted Mr. Edwards as an unaccomplished, inexperienced, disingenuous liberal.

The Bush campaign also began airing a television advertisement featuring what it described as ``John Kerry's first choice for a vice presidential running mate,'' Senator John McCain of Arizona. Mr. McCain, a Republican with an appeal to independents, had deflected several approaches by Mr. Kerry.